Learning Curve
by Burbank
Summary: The Lone Wanderer learns that in The Wasteland it's kill or be killed.


Go to Silver's house and collect the debt. A simple task. Perhaps The Wasteland wasn't as bad as the Overseer said it was. Still, the wanderer felt sickened by what had already happened. He hadn't wanted to kill anyone, especially not Amata's father. He couldn't help but wonder just how many more people would he have to kill in order to find his father.

The people in Megaton were nice enough, save the man who tried to persuade him to set the bomb to blow up the town. Perhaps he'd tell the sheriff about that when he returned, he definitely didn't want anyone blowing up the closest thing he had to a home at the moment.

As he neared Silver's home, he put away his pistol that he'd had cocked and ready during the entire journey to her home. A giant ant had caught him off guard during his stumble out of the vault and left him with some decent injuries, nothing a couple stimpacks couldn't cure though. The Wasteland was so bright and vast, the wanderer didn't want to even try imagining all of the awful creatures it was home to.

"Excuse me, Miss Silver?" He called out as he knocked on the door. Manners first, as always, he reminded himself. He hoped that his father's lessons about life could still be put to use where he was now. He straightened up as he heard thumping coming from inside the home.

"Who is it?" The woman shouted from inside. The wanderer heard a clicking noise from inside and assumed it to be her unlocking the door.

"Mr. Moriarty sent me to collect the caps you owe him, M'am." He said, almost cheerfully. He didn't expect this to last too long, he needed to be in and out. Kill 'em with kindness, as Old Lady Palmer always said.

"Come on in, kid." Silver unlocked the door and motioned for the wanderer to come inside.

He smiled and entered the home. "It's a nice home you have." He said while he looked around. Rusty cans and pots littered the kitchen and he could see syringes all over the place, some empty, some full of an odd colored substance. Truthfully, he couldn't have been more disgusted, but he'd already learned that nothing in The Wasteland was too appealing. "Thanks for letting me in. Mr. Moriarty said you might be trouble but he must've been lying."

He ate his words the second he turned around to face Silver. She had a pistol readied and aimed right at his face. "Hold on!" He shouted. He didn't know what to do; in the time that it would take to get his own gun out and cocked, he would be dead. "I'm not here to hurt you! I just need the caps you owe so that I can get some information about my dad!"

"Are you stupid?" Silver asked. "I don't have any fucking caps for that asshole." She put the pistol closer to the wanderer, almost touching the tip of his nose with the barrel. "You'd better get the hell out of here. And tell that fucker that you couldn't find a trace of me."

"M'am, I just need to get this information. I need to find my father, and to do that I need those caps." He said, his voice shaking. He wanted so badly to run, but where could he go? The Vault would never be his home again, and Collin would be relentless about Silver if he went back to Megaton. He wished that he could reverse everything. He wanted to go to class, he wanted to fight with Butch, he wanted to do mindless work on the water filtration system, and he wanted to play baseball with the team again. Baseball... He thought. He remembered the bat that he had slung over his shoulders by a couple of old shoelaces. If he could just get it into his hands and swing...

No.

He didn't want to kill anyone else. He had to find a way to do this in a civil way.

"Please, Miss Silver..." He begged. "I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm from Vault 101 and I'm trying to find my father." He slowly stepped out of the line of fire, she didn't follow him with the pistol. "He left the Vault and I don't know where he is."

"Kid, you aren't getting any caps. I'm giving you one more chance to leave." She said as she started to aim the pistol back at the wanderer.

It was then that something snapped in him. He realised that this is how it would be from now on. No one would give him a free ride anymore. He knew what he had to do, and in a split second, he slammed his bat into the side of Silver's head. Her pistol flew across the room as she fell and the wanderer ran to grab it. He pointed it at her body and fired as many shots as he could as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

When it was over, he dropped the gun and went over to search through Silver's pockets. He retrieved a pack of cigarettes, a book of matches and 500 caps from her body. He took a deep breath and stood back up. Before leaving he took a cigarette from the pack and lit up. He had changed completely in the few seconds that it had taken to kill Silver.

As he stepped back out into The Wasteland he put his bat back into it's sling and took his own gun from it's holster. There would be no more killing 'em with kindness, that life was over forever. He was now a Wastelander and he'd do whatever he had to in order to find his father.


End file.
